Yesterday, Bungie.net posted a small note about the Halouvre, and how it had just celebrated its 2nd birthday. Since we mentioned that celebration a week ago, I figured I’d pass on this – but JeBr0nie made me look again… and there IS something of note that’s new in that post; the Halouvre has opened a new section, called ‘The Best of The Halouvre‘, nailing down some of the most impressive HUDless shots they’ve collected. If you’ve found their large collection daunting, check out this best-of gallery – it’s a great way in! Update: looks like the site’s down (probably for bandwidth over-consumption) at the moment… not a good sign, given that we’re only one week into the month. (Louis Wu 17:12:30 UTC)

Heh – Ross Mills found a funny shirt. Be sure you read the description UNDER the shirt.(Louis Wu 16:54:03 UTC)

Okay, in general, I’m probably a little burnt out on montages; when it comes down to it, it’s usually just a bunch of stickies and snipes, maybe with some clever BR work tossed in for excitement. Occasionally, though, one comes through that’s got a bunch of stuff going for it – enough to make it stand out. Z just sent word of one of these; it’s a DualTage from PhaLanX and Ephrum, released over at halo3forum.com. Great added effects (that first ‘Boom!’ made me laugh out loud), fantastic quality, great gameplay. Funny outtakes at the end. (I was rooting for the BR kill after the sword lunge off Lockout… so close!) It’s 150 mb, in WMP9 format – it’s worth the download. Check it out.(Louis Wu 16:39:43 UTC)

kinggun sent along a YouTube link showing The Unchosen playing a live, metal version of ‘Mjolnir’ (we hosted an acoustic version yesterday) – different sound!(Louis Wu 15:51:42 UTC)

Over at MLGPro.com, there’s news of another big shakeup – Final Boss has dropped Saiyan, and picked up StrongSide, in the wake of three consecutive losses to Carbon this year. (Thanks, 3Suns.) There’s another perspective on the change over at Amped.(Louis Wu 14:30:52 UTC)

Heh – it’s never too late to find new reviews. We got word from Dennis Wyman of VGRC.net that they’ve got reviews of both Halo (Xbox) and Halo (PC) online; the games earned 9.0/10 and 9.5/10, respectively. Go read ’em!(Louis Wu 14:23:45 UTC)

Wow, doesn’t leave you much time – sorry for missing this yesterday. We’d already mentioned this year’s Penny Arcade-run Child’s Play Charity Dinner and Auction – there’s Halo-related stuff to buy there, and even if there wasn’t, it’s a fantastic cause. However, if you don’t have tickets, and you WANT them – they’re giving some away. All you have to do is create a comic strip (with a bunch of restrictions). Read this post at Penny Arcade, then swing by the Child’s Play site and scroll down to Recent News for 12-05-06; you can grab the template you need there. But hurry – submissions must be in by noon PST TODAY – that’s less than 6 hours from now. Get drawing! Thanks to jdogmoney for the heads-up!(Louis Wu 14:11:39 UTC)

Spartan Jag noticed a new post over at Bungie.net – the December Fan Art update. (I think it’s mislabeled, and actually the NOVEMBER update, since the last one (posted at the end of October) was the October update… but we all know KP’s been busy playing Pimps at Sea.) A chunk (almost half) have already appeared here at HBO – but the other half have not, and there’s some pretty darned impressive stuff in this batch! Go check ’em out. (Louis Wu 14:01:36 UTC)

Ename Nep noticed a ‘Top 10 Coolest Vehicles in Film and TV‘ list over at YesButNoButYes – the Warthog pulls in at number 6. They’re a little confused, I think; the picture shows the Halo 2 Hog, but the text describes the indestructible original. Oh, well.(Louis Wu 13:52:26 UTC)

A bunch of new Halo 3 commercial dissections this morning – TeamXbox has a sort of non-serious one and then one that’s a little more serious (thanks, 3Suns), and QuickTactical has written one up over at HaloGrid. Check ’em out – you might see something you missed!(Louis Wu 13:49:12 UTC)

Whoa. If you’re pining for some good old-fashioned Halo 1 LAN action, check out this post on the High Impact Halo website. Kansas in mid-January… I hear it’s cold, but you’ll be inside. Thanks, Ducain.(Louis Wu 22:56:41 UTC)

IGN has reviewed Ghosts of Onyx – full of story spoilers, so don’t read it until you’ve finished the book. Thanks, HaloPlanet.(Louis Wu 22:46:09 UTC)

Last week, kinggun submitted the lyrics to a song a friend’s band had written to our Fan Fiction section. Today, he sent us a recording of the song itself – you can grab an MP3 version of it from our servers (3.3 mb). I like it a lot!(Louis Wu 17:00:46 UTC)

Sometimes, Stuntmutt takes a shot at Bungie. Sometimes, he takes a shot at himself. Today’s One One Se7en takes a shot at the community… (Louis Wu 14:02:25 UTC)

A couple of days ago, IGN put up their own speculation story about the commercial; thanks to HaloPlanet for pointing this out.(Louis Wu 13:21:15 UTC)

Brandon stopped by our forum to point out that he’s released a public beta test for his mod for Oblivion (PC), called ‘The Spartan Project’. (We last mentioned this mod in November.) If you’ve got a copy of Oblivion, check the forum post for requirements, and a download link!(Louis Wu 12:01:49 UTC)

This has been news for some time, but I’m not sure we’ve ever reported it – there’s a news piece over at Gamepro that confirms that Halo 2 Vista will NOT support DirectX 10 visual effects. (This might come as a surprise to some, since it’s a Vista-only game, and the justification for that, originally, was that Vista supported the effects that would make Halo 2 stand out, while older systems didn’t. To these people, I’m not sure what to say that wouldn’t sound overly cynical.)(Louis Wu 11:58:25 UTC)